Saturday, February 27, 2010

Well, if you read this post, you know I HATE shoe shopping. But there is something I HATE even more, and that is bra shopping!

I am a large chested woman and have a HARD time finding bras that fit. For my wedding we went to this bra place downtown and had to be served by the man we now refer to as "Creepy Bra Guy". I got the right bra for my wedding dress. When it was time for nursing bras when I was pregnant with The Princess(I did not nurse The Superhero), I had to go back to Creepy Bra Guy! I ordered some online and ended up returning ALL of them!

Now that I am only nursing The Princess at bedtime I decided it was time to get some normal bras. My mom and I set out last Saturday morning to do just that. We left the kids with The Daddy so we would not have little ones to keep an eye on while shopping.

We started at Dillards. I have had luck there in the past. I told the sales lady what size I needed and she showed me the 3 or 4 that came in that size. I tried them. I left the store braless. Well, I still had my bra on, but you know what I mean. :)

We went to another store. The plus size store in the mall. I asked the girl there about my size. She measured me and told me I was wearing the wrong size! I was a little skeptical but went with it anyway. (I hate being measured, but I liked this girl, definitely NOTHING like creepy bra guy)

I tried the size she thought I would wear and it took a few styles for me to realize she was right! Or close to right anyway. I finally found what I thought was going to be an awesome bra. We bought 4 of them. They had 2 in the store and 2 would be shipped to my home.

I was VERY excited to have a bra that fits! I put one on that afternoon and was very pleased. Then as the day went on and I was bending over picking up toys, snacks, kids, etc I noticed that this might not be the bra for me. I was "spilling" out! I HATE spillage. I wore it a few more times over the next week. I finally made the decision that while these bras "looked" good when I first put them on (and they did look GOOD), they were not "mom" bras. I need a practical, functional, everyday bra.

I decided to keep the one I had been wearing all week and return the others. I would have to look for another one to fit right. Now that I know what size I should be wearing, I knew this would help as I went back into Dillards.

My mom and I went back to Dillards last night and found the few that came in my size (the new size) and I went to the fitting room. The first couple were NOT right. Then I tried on one of the last ones and SUCCESS! It fit awesome! I am pleased to say I finally found my "mom" bra.

Now I know most, if not all, women HATE bra shopping, but at least most of you get color choices! My choices were cream, beige, mocha, and black. That's it. I got three of the colors and will have to be happy with that.

So now I have my "mom" bras and I have one bra that my husband loves and will rarely see me in. :)

Monday, February 22, 2010

Yesterday was pump site change day for The Superhero. I also decided we would change his Dexie site as well. We were still getting good numbers out of it and we were on day 9, but the tape was starting to really peal up, so it was time for it to be changed.

The Superhero's mood was a little off due to not taking a nap, but the sites needed to be changed anyway. Normally, he does his site changes with NO problems at all.

I got all the supplies ready and called him into the kitchen.

He opened his sucker as I prepped the pump site. This one is the more complicated one, so I did it first.

Prepped his skin, prepped pump, inserted new site, got pump all set up, primed, and ready to go. He did great!

Here is a picture of his pump site:

Then I prepped for the Dexie site. I find these sites to be pretty easy to put in, and normally, he has NO problems with them. But like I said, he was not in the best of moods because he did not take a nap.

We sat on the couch for this one. I cleaned his skin. Inserted new site. He cried. He said "That hurts mommy." I finished and got Dexie up and running.

Here is a picture of his Dexie site:

He then told me that he did not want me to sit next to him. He was mad at me because I hurt him. :-(

I felt SO bad. He does not normally react that way, so it threw me off a bit.

Of course, later in the day he was fine and had "forgiven" me. Just not one of my favorite things to do to him. I hate Diabetes and I hate that we have to do these site changes to him, even if I know it is best for him.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

These are just some of the words I would use to describe The Superhero. (along with stubborn, independent, and irritating)

He amazes me everyday with everything he goes through!

When round two of the tummy bug visited him in the middle of the night on Saturday the 6th we (The Daddy and I) were determined to do everything we could to avoid the ER/Hospital. We gave him the anti-nausea meds, lots of fluids, and insulin to keep the ketones down.

He seemed to be doing ok. He tends to run low when he has a tummy bug, so we did a decreased temp basal for several days (at least -40%). We were doing ok keeping him between 80 and 150 or so. He only threw up the one time on that Saturday.

Then I posted about him having LOWS that were not fun, in the middle of his nap. We had a REALLY rough day that day. He threw up again that night at my mom's, but was still acting fine.

Then Thursday came and he was still running low. I was doing ok trying to keep him up, until he threw up AGAIN on my floor! Checked BG, low, checked ketones, 3.5 blood ketones (HIGH)! We did our best to get him to eat/drink and get his BG up so we could give him insulin, to get rid of the ketones.

Being 3 years old, and VERY independent (wonder where he gets that from!), he REFUSED to eat or drink anything. We finally made the decision that we knew was coming. It was time to go to the ER. We needed fluids. We needed dextrose to get his BG up.

All day I debated this decision. I felt like I was failing or giving up. But, it was time. We tried everything we knew how and there was just no convincing a 3 year old that he HAS to eat/drink.

We left The Princess with my parents (on their anniversary) and took The Superhero to the ER. He was acting fine. He kept asking where his "hosi-hole" was. We got there and were taken back immediately. They were worried about the ketones and low blood sugar combination, as we were.

They decided right away that they needed to get an IV going. The Child Life specialist came in to try to "distract" him during the IV/blood draw. The nurse came in and got started. They used this neat pen thing to numb his hand. She attempted the IV and ended up blowing the vein. The Superhero cried, A LOT.

Nurse #2 called in. She evaluated The Superhero's hands and arms to try to find the best vein to go for. She was determined to not put him through it more than one more time. She had the lights turned off and used the little light to see through his hand. (you know, the one they use to look in your mouth, nose, throat, etc)

She took a long time determining which one she wanted to go for. She marked the vein with a pen and the spot she wanted to numb as well. She got the other nurse ready. With the lights still turned OFF she did the IV and blood draw shining the light through his hand. Yes, the lights were still OFF. She did the whole thing in the DARK. I was/ am super impressed!

She got it in and we got the fluids started. They gave him some zofran in the IV as well as a dextrose drip. The ER docs were in and out. We saw several different docs and one resident. They all were a lot better about us handling his Diabetes this time around. After our last visit, we were very happy to see that things had changed.

I was impressed that the resident admitted she did not know much about diabetes and she was asking A LOT of questions trying to learn. Yep, she was actually learning from us, the parents! She understood that we knew more about it all than she did!

We ended up getting admitted. Once that decision was made, I went home so The Princess could sleep in her bed. The Daddy and The Superhero ended up sleeping in the ER all night because there were no rooms upstairs. I took The Princess to her doctor appointment the next morning (follow up for ears, and more antibiotics because the infection was not gone). Then we switched off. The Daddy brought The Princess home and my mom and I stayed all day with The Superhero.

We finally got moved to a room around 2pm. We met the pediatrician who would be seeing The Superhero while we were at the hospital. I had a good feeling about him from the beginning. He told me that he was going along with what the endo decides and that the endo would be calling the shots and he would be ok with sending us home when the endo thought it was ok.

Such a HUGE difference from the last time we were there! They actually were listening to us and letting us check his BG when WE wanted. We just wrote things down on the white board in the room and they would come copy it down occasionally. We were allowed to let him eat whatever, whenever he wanted.

He did great all day Friday. He nibbled on different foods throughout the day and was keeping it all down. His BG was finally up and his ketones were down. We decided to stay one more night just to make sure he was really going to be ok. We did not want to have to go back in a few days if we had more issues.

Then the next morning I get a call from The Daddy letting me know that he threw up AGAIN. We decided this was because the nurses decided to come in for a blood draw at 5 AM and the flushing of the IV woke The Superhero up. Then because he was awake he wanted to eat. The cafeteria does not open until 7, so he ate fruit snacks (or froop snacks as The Superhero would say) and Diet coke. This was all they had in the room that he would eat. This combination on an empty stomach does not sound appealing. I am sure this was why he threw up.

So when I got down there, after breaking down and balling my eyes out because I thought for sure we would be staying overnight again, I ordered 3 bananas from the cafeteria to keep in the room. He actually did very well and ate bananas, toast, pancakes, etc and was acting completely normal.

Ketones were finally gone. BG was staying up. We were given the ok to take him home. I let him finish his nap and then we were off! It was so nice to get to bring him home.

Since coming home, we have had to increase all of his basals and are working on that darn breakfast ratio again. It seems that now that he is feeling better he is having an increased need for insulin.

He has found a new favorite food, French Toast. He requests is for breakfast and dinner every day. And I let him have it. As long as he eats, I am ok. At some point I will quit giving in to the request, at least at dinner time.

The Superhero amazes me every day with everything he goes through. He gets at least 4 finger pokes a day (thanks to Dexie), site changes every 3 days, Dexie changes every 7 days (or more if they fail). And all this with no numbing cream (which I hear a lot about from other D families), no screaming, no crying. He actually runs around the house screaming "Yeah! Site change!" and "That's not too bad!". I don't know how he does it, but he is so amazing.

I hate that he has to have this disease, but I am so thankful that he can take it all in stride. It is no big deal to him.

Thank you to all who sent messages to me on FB and who prayed for us. I am so happy to have my amazing, brave, strong little boy back! (and the irritating, stubborn, independent one too)

Here is a pic from the hospital...

He CRASHED as soon as I got him to lay on me. It was literally in an instant.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

If you read this, please create your own list and comment on mine so I can read all about you!

Hope you learn something along the way...

1) I love babies. I have always loved babies. I used to play with baby dolls when I was younger, until I was at least 12 years old. I would pretend they were real and would even buy real baby bottles and clothes. I used to play with any baby around. I worked in a daycare for my first and second jobs and just loved the baby room. I used to babysit all the time when I was not working. Love taking care of them. Love holding them. Love hanging out with them. (maybe it is because they can't talk back!)

2) I only "dated" one person in High School. And I broke up with him on our first date. We went to a concert (Clay Walker) that I chose. He lost his contact, so he could not even see. And we had to drive him home afterward. That was an AWKWARD car ride. My brother was our chauffeur and probably thought it was awkward too. I still can't believe I treated him that way, I was young, what can I say. If you ever read this, I am sorry Tom.

3) Rod and I met online. Yahoo personals. I had to meet a few other "interesting" guys first. Two of the four I met in person I am pretty sure are not straight, they just don't know it yet. I mean who wears white painters pants on a date? And who orders diet coke and a turkey dog? I mean really? Thank God Rod was #4 and we fell in love.

4) I don't like scary movies. I don't like sci fi movies. I don't like being scared. And weird faced, yucky looking characters scare me. I even quit watching Heroes with Rod because I was getting creeped out at some of the characters. I also quite watching Ghost Whisperer for the same reason. I don't like getting scared.

5) I wore white on my wedding day. It represented more than just the color white. I was/am very traditional and "earned" wearing white. I am proud that I held out until my wedding.

6) I have big feet. I wear size 11 wide. (wide after pregnancies) I hate all you little-feeted-people out there who can walk into almost any shoe store and buy shoes off the shelf. I have been wearing the same black tennis shoes I bought after The Superhero was born and they are wearing out. I am dreading finding something to replace them with. I hate shoe shopping. (almost as much as I hate bra shopping).Hence wearing flip flops most of the year. (I am 5'11", having big feet does not stand out)

7) I have an obsession with dressing my kids cute. Not just cute, but SUPER cute. I had a hard time growing up and not having the Guess clothing or the clothes from the Gap. We just could not afford it. (and no, I don't blame my parents, it just was what it was) So, I choose to buy my kids clothes (or my mom buys my kids clothes) from Gymboree, Gap, Old Navy, Pumpkin Patch, etc. With occasional clothes from Target or Carter's. I am very picky about how they look when we leave the house. Sure, they might sit in jammies all day at home, but if we leave the house, they look adorable! Clothes and hair done. They look clean (most of the time) and put together. I am obsessed. (I do use coupons and shop sales when I can)

8)I, like Shamae, have a weird number thing. I cannot leave the TV volume on an odd number, unless it is a multiple of 5. It irritates me to leave it at 11 or 17, etc. And yes, Shamae, leaving your post with only 17 facts was hard for me to take!

9) I am a planner. I cannot just pick up and go somewhere easily. I like to plan my days, weeks, months out and have a set plan. I hate doing things last minute. I even planned both of my kids delivery dates. I was allowed to induce 10 days early with both and scheduled them both. I have a fear of the unknown and wanted to control what little I could, even with childbirth.

10) I tend to hold a grudge. If you get on my bad side, or hurt someone I love, I might not get over it. Or it might take a REALLY long time. I am trying to get better at this and just forgive and move on.

11) I am a HUGE procrastinator! I should be working right now. I have a TON to get done, and it will get done, just not right now. I procrastinate everything until it absolutely HAS to be done. I have always been this way and I don't think it will change any time soon.

12) I LOVE math. I know I am weird. In college I took a math class FOR FUN! I don't know what it is, but I love it. It must be in the genes, because my dad loves math too. My favorite is algebra. I could do algebra all day long! (I do hate geometry though!)

13) I was in a roll over accident almost 10 years ago that left a huge hole in my right arm. They had to do a skin graft to repair it. There are some minor scars on my left hand as well. I ended up getting a $30,000 settlement. I wish I had saved some of that money for my future instead of just blowing it all. I was young and stupid, what can I say?

14) I ditched school for the first time when I was in 2nd grade. We lived in an apartment complex and the school bus did not pick us up one day. So all the boys walked to school and all the girls decided to ditch. We hung around the complex for the day and hid behind garbage cans when we thought someone was coming. One by one, we got caught and had to go home. I am happy to say I was the last one to get caught. :-)

15) My first car was a 1979 VW Bug. She was yellow and her name was Sunshine. I got this car before my senior year in high school and drove it to school everyday. I would have my younger brother, we would pick up his friend, and then we would pick up my friend. The two boys squished into the back seat and my friend sat up front. It was a very tight fit, but at least we made it to school every day. Looking back, I wish I had appreciated my car more. I miss Sunshine. When I bought a new car a few years later, my brother took over Sunshine. My parents had it painted and Sunshine became The Blue Beast.

16) When I was a senior in HS I was obsessed with Shania Twain. I loved her. I loved her music. We would listen to her CD in the car every single day. My brother and his friend learned all the words too, even if they did not want to. I was lucky enough to get tickets to her New Years Eve concert here in Phx for NY 98/99. It was awesome. Who cares if we were second level, last row, behind the stage! We had a BLAST!

17) I love Disneyland. Before, Rod and I had kids we would go at least 4 times per year. Now that we have kids we have only been twice. Once when The Superhero was 6 weeks old and just this past November. Each time is a new experience and it never gets old. We are hoping to make a yearly trip now that the kids are a little older.

18) I hate moving. We have moved 3 times in the last 4 years and I am not sure if we will be moving again soon. I hate packing. I hate the actual move. And I HATE unpacking.

19) I spent many years volunteering for a local soccer organization. I hate sports. I hate playing them. I hate watching them. My younger brother played soccer growing up, still does actually. Instead of playing, I played with the younger siblings. I volunteered as team mom/sister several times. I was the statistician for the region. I volunteered at the big annual tournament for several years. I loved helping. We definitely made life long friends through soccer.

20) I love to talk. A. Lot. I work from home and only talk to my kids most of the time. So when I get around adults, I tend to talk. a. lot.

And because of my weird number thing, I am ending at a nice even 20. Divisible by 2 and 5. :-)

Monday, February 15, 2010

1) I was leaving the hospital on Thursday night to get The Princess from my parents and put her to bed. I was saying goodbye to The Superhero and in his super cute, super sweet little Superhero voice said "Mommy, I going miss you!", which of course did not help my mommy guilt because I was leaving him! (Rod stayed with him at night)

2) Leaving the hospital the next night, I was waiting for Rod to get up to The Superhero's room and I was telling The Superhero I was going to be leaving and that Daddy was on his way. He kept saying "Mommy, you don't want to leave me all by myself." And he started crying A TON! Which, of course, got my water works going! I don't know why he would have thought I was leaving him alone. We would NEVER leave him alone in the hospital!

3) My FAVORITE moment of the week...I bought The Superhero a toy from the Disney store on Friday night during my mom and my retail therapy. I brought the new toy to The Superhero on Saturday morning and gave it to him. He was asking why I brought it for him. I said "I bought it for you because I love you." He replied, "Ahhh, I love you too Mommy!" (in his super cute, super sweet little Superhero voice, of course!)

Moments like these make me love him even more. I just have to remember these when he is being his normal irritating self. :-)

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Before yesterday, I had not had "one of those days" in a L O N G time!

You know, one of those "Why me?" Why my kid?" "This isn't fair!" kind of days.

Why does MY kid have to have Diabetes?

It is NOT fair that I have to wake my 3-year-old up from his nap to have cake gel!

It is NOT fair that MY 3-year-old has to be a pin cushion 24/7 for the REST OF HIS LIFE!

If is NOT fair that MY kid has to feel like CRAP when he is low/ high/ dropping fast/ rising fast.

It is NOT fair that WE have to think about being a pancreas 24/7! Diabetes NEVER sleeps.

It sucks that no one REALLY gets this all, unless they are going through it themselves!

Yesterday was exactly 1 year and 7 months since The Superhero was diagnosed with T1 Diabetes. He is 3 years old. He has now had diabetes for more than 1/2 his life. Most of his life. This did not even hit me until late in our crappy day.

We have been having crazy numbers lately. It all began with a tummy bug (again!) on Saturday night. We seemed to get past it with only one vomiting spell and then we drugged him up with anti-nausea meds for a couple of days. He seemed to get back to "normal" except that his insulin needs decreased, DRAMATICALLY.

We were doing -50% - -70% of his basal needs for DAYS and he has barely been hovering at 100 during the day and 150 at night.

Yesterday brought MANY lows.

He was being really whiny and crying A LOT in the morning. I finally checked him (via his Dexie) and he was 78, and dropping! I got him to drink some juice. He spilled some juice on his shirt and FREAKED out. We changed his shirt. Then he kept FREAKING out that he DID NOT want that shirt! And "Mommy, you need to take it off!" I finally just had to grab him and hold him tight until he calmed down. I have not seen him like that in a LONG time.

He hovered around 78 all morning, did not want to eat, basals were already decreased by 70%. He then refused to eat lunch. Went down for a nap and ended up going as low as 57 at one point. I woke him up to give him cake gel and he went back to sleep. He slowly came back up to around 100 an hour or so later.

He slept for about 3 hours. I had to wake him up or he might have never gone to bed last night. I got him to have some marshmallows for a snack (healthy, I know). This got his BG up to a more comfortable 180.

I had a marketing event for work and he was going to my mom's house for the evening. I did not want her to battle lows like I did, hence the marshmallow snack.

Off I go to my marketing session, about 30 minutes away (in traffic). I call as I am getting close to the location to check on the kids and see how they are doing. They were doing great, then we started to end the call and my mom had to go QUICK because The Superhero was throwing up!

So, I did my meeting quickly, got my Starbucks to go and went back to my mom's house.

The whole way there I was thinking about how much I HATE this disease. I was thinking about Meri's post about being Strong, but human and her post about Feeling Edgy and I just broke down and started crying.

Yes, I am strong. Yes, I handle Diabetes because I have to. I know The Superhero was given to me for a reason. BUT I am still human and this is A LOT to handle sometimes.

I live life on the edge EVERYDAY. I guess I got pushed off the cliff when he threw up again. I just don't know how much more I can take. I seriously feel like I am on an edge about to be blown off, EACH AND EVERY DAY.

I know my friends and family try to understand, but until you live this life, you never can truly "get it". I appreciate the effort all of them put in trying to understand and to show compassion.

Anyway, I was on the way to my mom's house when all of this hit me and I just could not stop crying and asking the Why me? Why The Superhero? questions. (listed above)

Then I get to my mom's house and The Superhero was happy as can be and running around like crazy. He kept wanting to eat and he snacked a little. He seemed to feel better.

Then we headed home. Since this was a Wednesday night, Rod was in school so I was on my own. I put The Princess to bed as soon as we got home and then was hanging out with The Superhero. He kept complaining that his hand hurt. I pushed all over it and he did not complain. So, I figured no broken bones, he must be fine. Maybe a pinched nerve or it fell asleep or something.

Then it was time for him to go to bed. We went in his room (around 9pm, very late for him) and he just would not settle down. He kept complaining that his hand was hurting. I held him and rocked him. I asked what would make it feel better. He kept wanting me to rub/massage it. I did so. He kept fussing and would not sit still. My mom came over to try to hold him too, so I could get a break. He DID NOT want NaNa last night.

She and I just kept watching him. He was SO uncomfortable and just kept saying his hand was hurting. Then it finally hit us! His Dexie site was on his right arm, the one with the hurt hand.

The ONLY thing we could think was that it must have gotten bumped and was hitting a nerve, causing the hand to feel weird (or pain in his mind). So we changed his dexie site and he went to lay on the couch and was OUT!

Asleep INSTANTLY.

It was 10pm and he just CRASHED. I have NEVER seen him fall asleep SO fast!

Here are pictures of him sleeping on the couch last night. I guess the dexie site did the trick!

I am feeling a little better this morning. I still hate diabetes, as anyone would. But I am moving on. I had not had "one of those" days in SO long and I am sure it will be a while before another one hits me.

Monday, February 8, 2010

I have decided to start a new weekly post called Mommy Moment Monday. I will pick one Mommy Moment from the previous week, good or bad, and blog about it. :)

Well, my new blogging mom friend Wendy blogged about the worst D-Mom award. (which we all decided was not earned!). Now it is my turn. Only this time it has nothing to do with being a bad D Mama, just a bad mommy in general. (I know, I know, you will all say this is not earned too, but I feel horrible!)

You may all remember when we bought The Princess her first shoes, I blogged about it here. We bought her first shoes in August. She started wearing some right away, and some were a little bigger to wear as she got a little bigger.

Well, I haven't even thought about her shoes again since then. She has been wearing most of those shoes up until last week. I was at the mall and wandered into Stride Rite. I decided to get the kids feet measured to see if we were still in the right sizes. The Superhero still has plenty of room in his shoes! (the good news)

The Princess on the other hand needed new shoes. She was measuring at a 6, needing a 6 1/2 size shoe. I put her shoes back on and made a plan to head up to the outlet mall soon. (much better prices on those expensive little shoes!)

That night I was cutting her toe nails. I noticed how yucky her toe nails were looking, kind of worn away and smooshed. I decided that she REALLY must need new shoes now. I looked at the current shoes and noticed that they were a size 6 (the pair I grabbed). I thought, ok, I have another week or so before I will stress to find her new ones. THEN I grabbed her other shoes and noticed that they were a 5 1/2! I have been jamming her feet into shoes that were 1 size TOO SMALL for weeks! I kept thinking she was just curling her toes and would force them on anyway. She never complained. She just wore them anyway.

Of course, this made me feel horrible! I am sure that had to super uncomfortable. Poor thing. I was going to go up and get just one pair to make do until we could afford to buy her a few pairs.

My mom had another idea. :) (gotta love NaNa) We took The Princess to her 15 month check up on a Friday morning. (my dad kept The Superhero, gotta love that Pompa too!) After her appointment we drove up to the outlet mall (about 20-30 minutes North of town). We found lots of shoes we loved, and settled for 3 new pairs.

We got a black pair

a white pair

and a multi-colored pair

I am still kicking myself for not realizing that her shoes were SO small for her feet. Poor thing just let me jam her feet in her shoes everyday with not complaining. I will hopefully notice when she grows out of these ones!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

So, I took The Princess in for allergy testing on Monday. She has ALWAYS had milk issues. Whenever I would eat ice cream, drink milk, have pudding, etc, she would get SICK. (since I am nursing). The doctor told me this "shouldn't" happen, but it did. I pretty much have avoided all full fat dairy products, or timed them around her feedings.

Now that she is over 1 year old, I wanted to try to wean her off of nursing during the day so it would be easier to leave her. (I hate pumping!) So, we started giving her milk, cheese, yogurt, etc. She started to get sick. She would throw up randomly and was having diarrhea off and on. Her skin was looking worse and worse. She was just being overall CRANKY. We took her off of the milk and dairy products temporarily to see how she did. I put her on rice milk, rice cheese, and soy yogurt. I scheduled allergy testing to see if it was a true allergy.

Here are the pictures from her appointment.

Sitting in the exam room chair like a BIG girl.

Waiting for the 15 minute scratch test to be done.

The scratch test (the one that reacted was the control test)

They tested for milk, soy, peanuts, wheat, etc as well as common environmental allergies such as dogs, cats, dust, etc.

They came back in after 15 minutes to measure the marks from the scratch test. Turns out she is all NEGATIVE! Yes, this is good news, BUT why is she so sensitive to dairy then? Well, the doctor (who I really liked!) said she probably has a lactose sensitivity rather than a true allergy. He wants us to STRICTLY avoid dairy for the next year and see how she does.

THEN I mentioned that Wendy had listened to the symptoms we were seeing and thought it sounded a lot like the symptoms for celiac that Sugar had before she was diagnosed. AND I mentioned that The Superhero has Diabetes. Since celiac is also an autoimmune disease, The Princess has a higher chance of having celiac as well. So, he thought we could go ahead and run a celiac panel just to rule it out.

We went down to the lab to have her blood drawn. They CLEARLY were not prepared for a squirmy, super strong 1 year old! They got the first needle in, were getting blood and then one of the two techs who was supposed to be holding The Princess' arm still decided The Princess seemed relaxed and stopped holding it. The Princess moved her arm just right that the needle came right out and blood started pooling out of her arm.

They cleaned up and got the second arm ready to poke. They switched roles. Same thing happened, only this time they did not ever get her vein. I gave up. They did not get as much blood out of arm 1 as they wanted, but are hoping it will be enough. It will have to be. I was not going to let The Princess be poked again. If it was not enough, I will have to go somewhere else to get the blood taken.

Anyway, we should have the results in a couple of weeks (hopefully). I am 98% sure it will be negative, but who knows.

Monday, February 1, 2010

I have never posted The Superhero's story, so I thought I would share. :)

I had this written up from his 1 year Dia-versary last year.

It all started on Sunday July 6, 2008. Rod and I had gone to a movie (Rod still remembers what movie it was and I always have to ask him, it was Wall-E). We left The Superhero with my parents while we went to the movie. When we got back to their house to pick him up we noticed he was breathing a little funny. We decided to take him to Urgent Care to have him checked out, only to find out that Urgent Care was closed. We then took him to the ER at Thunderbird hospital. We spent some time having his chest x-rayed and vitals checked. The doctor there acted like we were nuts and that our son was fine, maybe a little bronchitis. They sent us home and told us he should be better within a few days.

The Superhero seemed to get a little worse overnight. His breathing was becoming more and more labored. I made an appointment with his Pediatrician for that morning (Monday, July 7). His Aunt Tiffany and I took him in and had him checked out. He was still breathing weird and was becoming a little lethargic. The doctor checked him out and listened to his lungs. She noticed a throat infection he had. We assumed this might be why he was acting lethargic. She was not comfortable with the way he was breathing, but was not sure why he was breathing this way. We were told to monitor him and bring him in the next day if he seemed worse.

He did get worse again that night. He was still breathing abnormally and was becoming more lethargic. He was not eating a lot but was drinking A TON. We thought he was fine because he was staying hydrated, which we knew was important. We made another appointment with the Pediatrician. She checked him over and was still not comfortable with his breathing but could not put her finger on why he would be breathing the way he was. We brought him home and tried a few breathing treatments to see if that would help. The next day, Wednesday July 9th he seemed to perk up a little and we thought he was getting better. He ate his first meal in days and seemed more alert. We called the Pediatrician to let her know he was doing a little better.

Late that afternoon, he seemed to get worse again. He threw up one of his meals. I let the doctor know, and she prescribed something to help his upset tummy. I decided to wait it out since we had another appointment with the doctor in the morning. I did go out and get a video monitor so I could watch him breathe that night while he slept. Rod and I watched him off and on all night. I would wake up and turn on the monitor to watch him breathe for a few minutes and then turn it off. We woke up in the morning fully intending to take him to the Pediatrician.

Rod went off to work and I had my mom come over so I could shower before his appointment. Before she arrived I was getting The Superhero’s medicine ready with some juice. I could not do it one handed, so I put him on the floor and he almost fell over. He could not stand on his own. He was so weak. All he wanted to do was be held and to sleep. My mom watched him while I showered. When I came out into the living room she and I decided to take him straight to the Children’s Hospital. We knew if we had gone to the Pediatrician again she would have taken one look at The Superhero and sent us there anyway.

We finished getting everything ready and headed out. We called my dad and Rod on the way to let them know we were headed to the ER. My dad picked up Rod on his way down there. My mom was driving and I kept peeking in the back seat to make sure The Superhero was still breathing while he slept. As soon as we got there we were taken in to a room in the ER. The doctor came in and asked the routine questions. It seemed as though they thought he had swallowed something. He was taken for x-rays of his throat. Nothing. They tried a steroid breathing treatment. Nothing. No change in him at all. During this whole week I had been researching online and knew his symptoms could mean Diabetes, but I thought there was no way. I mentioned this to the ER doctor and they went ahead and checked his blood sugar.

I sat on the ER bed with my baby in my arms as the meter read 598. I immediately started to sob like a baby. I remember hearing my mom ask if it could be that high for any other reason. The doctor assured us there would be no reason for his blood sugar to be that high than Type 1 Diabetes. We were told he was going to be admitted immediately and would be taken to the ICU.

One of the doctors from the Endocrine team came to visit us while we were still in the ER. He explained a little to us about The Superhero being in DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis). He told us the IV team would be coming in to insert an IV into The Superhero ASAP because he was severely dehydrated.

After his IV was in and the room in the ICU was ready, we were moved to our room where we spent the next 3 days waiting for some improvement in The Superhero. He was in someone’s arms almost non-stop. He laid on me and on his NaNa for comfort. He laid on his Daddy and Pompa when we needed a break. I stayed with him each day from morning until late at night. My mom and Rod stayed with him at night. During his time in ICU he had 2 more IV’s inserted and began to have his finger poked every hour for blood sugar checks. He finally started to turn around on the 3rd day. He seemed to perk up a bit and was excited to get to eat again. We were moved to a regular room where we were able to bring him more toys and a wagon to play in (and ride in).

Rod, my parents, my brother/ sister-in-law and I learned how to manage diabetes in a crash course before The Superhero was released. We each learned to do finger pokes and check his blood sugar. A few of us practiced giving shots of insulin. Then we were released to manage this monster on our own. We have had to learn a whole new way of living. We can no longer rush out of the house in 5 minutes. It takes time to check The Superhero’s blood sugar and treat if needed. Pack all the supplies needed for every trip out of the house. It took a few days for us to feel comfortable leaving the house, a little longer to feel comfortable going out to eat at a restaurant, and even longer to let him stay with someone other than Rod or I for more than a few hours.

We learned how to adjust his insulin needs on our own. We learned how to count carbs and give insulin to cover his meals.